Greyhounds And Babies/children

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Congrats on the baby coming!

 

I had to laugh about the dog toys and baby toys. Give up. Truly

 

My kid usually has a dog toy in his mouth, and I am forever finding baby toys in the dogs' crates

 

I run all plastic toys through the dishwasher constantly, and wash all human and canine stuffies routinely. What can we do?

[Guest Bang_o_rama]

Biting gets discussed here occasionally, and like a lot of discussions here it can arouse passions.

 

One problem is that attacks by well-socialized, friendly, well-treated pet dogs are extremely rare, which makes statistics difficult to find and interpret. Of course, they DO occur, and when they do, like airliner crashes, especially when it's a large dog and a small child, they can be high-consequence events.

 

Low likelihood/high-consequence events are just brain-numbing in terms of planning and precautions. Like residential fires; frequent enough to justify buying an extinguisher or two, but how many residences are sprinklered?

 

Anyway, I did manage to dig up some info. Nothing I found contradicted my belief that while any dog of any breed might bite, most dogs never do AND the greyhound is one of the least likely breeds to do so.

 

From http://www.thedogplace.org/Articles/Family-Dog/0901-Most-AgressiveDogs.htm:

 

Five paragraphs from the bottom it says "The study, published this week in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, involved researchers from the University of Pennsylvania questioning 6,000 dog owners. Breeds scoring low for aggression included Basset hounds, golden retrievers, Labradors, Siberian huskies. The Rottweiler, pit bull and Rhodesian ridgeback scored average or below average marks for hostility towards strangers. Greyhounds rated the most docile. " (My emphasis).

 

A lot of stats can be seen at http://www.dogforums.com/2-general-dog-forum/8689-dog-bite-statistics-breed.html.

 

Problem is they don't seem to be corrected for the relative population size of each breed, which REALLY limits their usefulness, but again, greys are comfortingly low.

 

And http://www.dogbitelaw.com/ discusses, from the perspective of a lawyer, the legal aspects of dog bites.

 

~D~

[Guest burgerandfrey]

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in August. We have two greyhounds we adopted this past Summer. Before that we had our first greyhound for ten years. As has been said much depends on the individual dog, but even with a tolerant kid-friendly dog all interaction must be supervised until the child is old enough to know what is and isn't acceptable to your dog.

 

Our first greyhound Aries was extremely gentle and absolutely fantastic with kids and even babies. She loved small children and enjoyed giving them big kisses. Nothing seemed to bother Aries, and she enjoyed it when my nieces sat with her on her dog bed. She was with us throughout our dating and engagement years, and through the first few years of our marriage... so it will be sad to not have her around with the new baby. We adopted our current greyhounds a few months after we lost Aries. We love our new greys as well, but one of them might be a little more difficult to socialize with the baby.

 

Our female Lola is even more laid back than Aries was. She is great with children and small dogs. Like Aries you can cuddle with Lola all you want. Even if you accidentally roll onto her while you're sleeping, she won't snap or freak out... she'll just move. Zeke, on the other hand, has a few boundaries that must be respected. He is a sweet and happy boy, but he does have a few issues that he has always been extremely clear about: He is not possessive of any single dog bed, but wherever he lies down is to be his space while he is lying down. If he lies down next to you he will cuddle with you, but if he is lying down on his own you just need to let him lie. If disturbed while sleeping he may snap. Zeke also gets uncomfortable if you put your face too close to his and stare at him... especially while he is lying down. None of this is unusual behavior for a dog. They need to feel secure while they sleep, and staring is often interpreted as a challenge. Fortunately this behavior is becoming less frequent. We have had Zeke for about six months now, and he is clearly more comfortable in his surroundings than he used to be.

 

So as far as I'm concerned the first rule is to make sure your dog feels safe, secure, and happy. (And shouldn't that always be rule #1?)

 

Rule #2 is to figure out what your dog's boundaries are, and how to read their body language so you know when they are uncomfortable. Unless they are startled, most dogs try to communicate their feelings before lashing out.

 

Rule #3 seems to be: Introduce the baby to the dog(s) carefully, and manage their interactions as time goes on so that everyone knows what kind of behavior/interaction is acceptable or not.

 

We have two concerns when it comes to Zeke: The first concern is that a crawling baby or a walking toddler will approach Zeke while he is lying in his bed and that he will freak out. We plan to manage this by supervising the interaction at all times so we can stop the kid from doing this. When the child is able to move faster than our reaction time, we may need to use some kind of gate-like corral around the dog beds so they can retreat to a safe location the baby or toddler can't easily reach. The dog beds are in the living room (they like to be with us). I have seen things like this before... they are like little foldable fences that go around the bed. Even if the kid gets past the dog bed security, Zeke's reaction to things like this is to get up and bark. He doesn't even really growl about it, and he rarely snaps. Still, it will be our responsibility to make sure our baby/todder respects Zeke's boundaries.

 

The other issue with Zeke is that he sees really small dogs and furry critters as toys or prey. My sister-in-law brought over a new puppy and Zeke wanted to play with it in a not so nice way. He is fine with slightly larger dogs and with small children, but we hope he doesn't see a baby as a toy. Hopefully our baby won't be too furry or squeaky, so that should take care of that. We are considering a baby doll that makes baby noises just to see how he reacts... or at least playing some baby sounds for him to get used to.

 

Fortunately Zeke is extremely patient and easy-going around small children. He gets along well with my nieces. We are also frequently approached by parents with small children while out for walks. The kids always want to pet Zeke and Lola. We show them how to pet the dogs gently on the back and shoulders, but one time a very small little boy grabbed Zeke in a very innappropriate place I always hold Zeke's collar when we are around children that small, but he didn't even react to it

 

Just make sure your dog doesn't feel left out when the baby comes. Try to give them just as much attention as before to keep their comfort level high. A dog that feels happy, safe, and like part of the family should eventually bond with your child just as they have bonded with you.

 

Sean

[BootsyCollins]

I had to laugh about the dog toys and baby toys. Give up. Truly

 

My kid usually has a dog toy in his mouth, and I am forever finding baby toys in the dogs' crates

 

 

Amen. My rule is whoever gets the toy first gets to keep it. The only things that are off limits are Lucas's cookie monster slippers and Bootsy's bones. Bootsy wants those slippers so badly, but he knows he can't have them...until we're all gone for the day.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Yup, chew bones are kept in crates only here! Which is useful since we have a lot of dogs too. I can never find two slippers or socks that match- for me, DH, or the baby. I have hamper thieves

[Guest LindsaySF]

Since you already have a dog, I would test her with young children now. That will tell you a lot. Some dogs are fine with time, some love babies, some tolerate them, and some are absolutely NOT safe around children or babies. Depends on the dog. But the general rules "Let sleeping dogs lie", etc, etc, will help you a lot.

 

 

Greyhounds are prone to being a little more space and touch sensitive than other breeds

Worth repeating.

 

 

Since you have a shy dog, and I hate to be the negative person BUT, shy dogs tend to be much more reactive to perceived threats like a baby crying or crawling by while they sleep. I really doubt that a shy dog will be a comfortable with a baby as the pictures we have seen. (Argos was the world's most chill loving dog). Please do be prepared to provide a safe place for your grey, particularly as your baby becomes a toddler.

Agreed.

 

 

 

 

~Lindsay~

[GeorgeofNE]

Well, I guess it depends mostly on YOU.

 

Do you REALLY think you can devote enough time and attention to a dog AND an infant?

 

The dog won't need less time and attention after you have a baby.

 

Just give that a lot of thought, in addition to everything else people are going to tell you!

[BootsyCollins]

Mothers of multiple children the word over will tell you that they have infinite capacity to love all of their children. The toddler years are challenging, for sure, when it comes to your time, and the dog may be asked to play second fiddle at times, but she'll get over it.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

I manage just fine- I give up other things to hang out on here with my dogs snoozing all over me (such as my sleep ) because they need me. My dogs are very important to me, and while there are times they are baby gated in the next room, or left at home for a couple hours when we go out with the baby (we eat out a lot, our son is happy and smiley and is not a problem at restaurants), and they do just fine. Priorities, for sure. My baby also is very happy to crawl and toddle around and play with toys and so forth. He doesn't have to be in my arms all the time, in fact he'd rather be playing! So he just follows me around the house along with the pups, and everybody's happy. It also depends on your partner. Mine is an AMAZING, godsend of a husband and father. He comes home from work and takes baby duty so I can walk the dogs, relax, play online, or whatever. We hang out in the evening with the dogs and he plays with them and pets on them and we chat and have our together time (baby goes to sleep at 6:30 or 7 every night). Is it hard to balance it all? Occasionally. But for the most part, really, it's not rocket science. If the dog is more important to you than going out, and especially if you're a stay at home parent, then you should be able to do it. I manage just fine, and I have five or more dogs at any given time, and a very happy, ahead of all the milestones, gorgeous little kid. The first four months were more intensive since I breastfed exclusively, and he would not take a bottle. I could not leave, ever, unless I took him. I did a lot of nursing surrounded by dogs! All they want is to be with you.